Last year, an anxious, depressed 17-year-old boy was admitted to the psychiatric unit at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. He was refusing to drink water. Worried about drought related to climate change, the young man was convinced that if he drank, millions of people would die. The Australian doctors wrote the case up as the first known instance of "climate change delusion."

Robert Salo, the psychiatrist who runs the inpatient unit where the boy was treated, has now seen several more patients with psychosis or anxiety disorders focused on climate change, as well as children who are having nightmares about global-warming-related natural disasters.

Such anxiety over current events is not a new phenomenon. Worries about contemporary threats, such as nuclear war or AIDS, have historically been woven into the mental illnesses of each generation. But global warming could have a broader and deeper effect on mental health, even if indirectly.

"Climate change could have a real impact on our psyches," says Paul Epstein, the associate director for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School.

Over this century, the average global temperature is expected to rise between 1 degrees and 6 degrees Celsius. Glaciers will melt, seas will rise, extremes in precipitation will occur, according to scientists' predictions.

There is evidence that extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and hurricanes, can lead to emotional distress, which can trigger such things as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, in which the body's fear and arousal system kicks into overdrive.

(snip)

Of course, no one can predict what effect warming will have on our psyches. The links between mental illness and the weather can be tenuous or even downright contradictory. Depending on which studies you read, suicide is more common, less common, or equally common in hot weather. Ditto dry weather.

The writer assumes that Global Warming is an actual threat and also assumes that the stats cited are true. Then the writer admits that the whole notion is unverifiable.

Not one of the projections of increased mental illness as a result of 9/11 came true. Not one. Not at 6 months, 3 years, or 5 years. No prediction involving PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, or difficulty with the activities of daily living or addiction came true.

In fact, no one has been able to establish any connection between traumatic events and mental illness in population groups. And Lord knows they've tried so hard to do it. Bosnians and Somalis do not have the expected rates of PTSD or depression. Virginia Tech students who declined therapeutic interventions and gestures show no differences from other students in terms of depression or anxiety. (Those who accepted therapeutic interventions are worse than those who didn't.)

Beware the whitecoats offering empathy and pills! ;)

biccat

02-09-2009, 12:01 PM

The Australian doctors wrote the case up as the first known instance of "climate change delusion."
How can this be true? An Inconvenient Truth was released in '06.

:confused:

FlaGator

02-09-2009, 12:04 PM

Look no further than Al Gore and one would see the devastating effects of GWDS (Global Warming Derangement Syndrome).

noonwitch

02-09-2009, 02:02 PM

The kid has a delusional disorder and has fixated on global warming as one of his themes.

Delusionals will fixate on something-whether it's the CIA drugging their children through immunizations to prepare them to be superspies, or UFOs being able to read their minds, or the mall is broadcasting their thoughts over the PA system. This kid got all weird about global warming.

lacarnut

02-09-2009, 02:09 PM

The kid has a delusional disorder and has fixated on global warming as one of his themes.

Delusionals will fixate on something-whether it's the CIA drugging their children through immunizations to prepare them to be superspies, or UFOs being able to read their minds, or the mall is broadcasting their thoughts over the PA system. This kid got all weird about global warming.

So did many young people that supported Obama. They were like zombies not knowing what to do after he won. The liberal mind is kinda like that in many ways.

wilbur

02-09-2009, 03:17 PM

Global warming causes mental illness? Oh dear. I guess its time for me to man up and admit I was wrong.

It IS a religion after all!

Teehee

FlaGator

02-09-2009, 03:42 PM

Global warming causes mental illness? Oh dear. I guess its time for me to man up and admit I was wrong.